Adrian Grade 4.4 out of 5 Stars
Overview
This 4-star hotel is one of the best options for a weekend break and you won’t break the bank either. Barcelona as a whole is a very affordable city and Hotel Barcelona epitomizes the city’s great experience at decent prices.
The hotel is also conveniently located close to all of the action in Barcelona. Located right next to Barcelona’s biggest tourist attraction it’s a great location. The hotel has a wonderful aesthetic to it with a boutiquey vibe. Only opened in 2018 this modern hotel has 1882 in its name to honor Gaudi and the year in which the Sagrada Familia began construction.
You really can’t go wrong with staying here. Our review is based on our experience in the hotel in late 2021. We stayed here for 3 nights with an Executive king. Our review is based on our experiences.
Location
Barcelona is a very walkable city and the area in which the Hotel Barcelona 1882 is located is very conveniently situated close to some of the city’s top sites. Within a 3 minute walk is the impressive Sagrada Familia, your right amongst the action.
Even though the hotel is so close to one of the city’s most famous tourist spots. The area around the hotel feels quite residential and is not touristy at all. There are loads of nice restaurants and bars around and it really feels like you are experiencing Barcelona like a local.
How far is the Hotel Barcelona 1882 from the airport?
The hotel is around a 30-minute drive from Barcelona airport. If you’re getting a taxi it will cost you around €30 and we recommend downloading the Free Now app and setting up an account before traveling. This will help throughout your stay as you can order taxis and know exactly how much you will pay for them. When visiting new countries we at InspoVacay are always a little worried that we will be overcharged by taxi drivers, but by using FreeNow we didn’t have that worry.
There are a few public transport options. The Aerobus lines A1 and A2 will drop you off quite close to the hotel, but you still need to get a metro too. The stop for the bus is Plaça Universitat. In the same square, take metro L2 towards ‘Badalona – Pompeu Fabra’ and get off at Sagrada Familia. From there, walk up two blocks to Carrer Còrsega and turn left. We are just 350 yards away. The cost of the bus is €6 and the metro fare too.
Honestly, the taxi is probably the easiest route, our recommendation is to go with that.
Top Tips
- There is a really impressive rooftop pool/bar area on the top floor. There’s loads of seating in this area and it’s the perfect place to read a book and chill for the day with a tasty drink. The bar is only really open in the summer months, so if you’re visiting in non peak season you won’t be able to leverage it as much
- The main bar in the lobby is actually pretty reasonably priced. It was pretty comparable to most of the bars we visited throughout our stay. It was around €2 for a small glass of beer and a Gin and tonic was around €8. You can get food here too, and it was also reasonably priced and quite nice
- The breakfast spread here is really great. They have everything you would ever want for breakfast. They had hot food like an omelette station, cooked food. A great range of cold meats and cheeses. Really nice choices of coffees with all of the milk varieties you could want and last but not least a killer variety of pasties. The red velvet cakes and cheesecakes were top notch. The breakfast costs €14 if you don’t have it included in your room package, but it’s well worth it given the standard of food
- Hotel Barcelona 1882 is an environmentally conscious hotel and they do a great job at calling out the initiatives they have in place to help reduce their carbon footprint. The hotel is part of the Biosphere hotel certification process and has a number of initiatives to be environmentally conscious. The hotel was also built with the environment in mind and was one of the top ten sustainable hotel renovation projects in Spain according to ReThink Hotel awards 2018.
Check-In
The whole process was very smooth. We did arrive in the morning and our room wasn’t ready yet, but the staff were very helpful and checked us in, and took our bags. We then were able to go exploring for a few hours. Once we got back our room was ready. The staff was really good at explaining everything on offer in the hotel. They gave detailed instructions on how the air con worked which was super helpful.
Amenities
The hotel has a great range of amenities on offer. The standout feature is definitely the rooftop pool and lounge area. It’s a really special place with great views throughout the city. On the far side of the rooftop, there is a great viewing point of the Sagrada Familia. It’s a great spot to take in Gaudi’s wonderful architecture at night when it’s lit up.
The hotel puts on a number of things that give guests added value such as free bike rentals, yoga classes, and guided walking tours of the city. So, make sure that you make use of these. They were nice little add ons to the overall experience.
Gym
There was a gym here in 1882. It’s on the smaller side but has more than enough equipment to get a good session in. The gym is just off the reception area and looks out onto the street. It has modern equipment, more than enough cardio machines, some dumbbells, one machine weight machine, and a stretching area. The gym was empty every time I walked by it, so you’ll always be able to get a workout in if you fancy.
The Service
Throughout our stay, we found that the service was really good. From the moment we checked in to when we left that staff was super helpful. From getting advice on local restaurants and places to see to the consistency of the room cleaning it was a great all-around experience.
A few of the nights we asked for recommendations on local restaurants and each time the suggestions and we found some serious gems that we wouldn’t have found on Tripadvisor. So kudos to the staff for their recommendations.
Cleanliness
We had zero issues with the hotel’s cleanliness. Throughout the whole hotel, the place was absolutely spotless. All of the communal areas were cleaned regularly. They had hand sanitizers throughout the hotel and the housekeeping team was really thorough.
Booking during Covid
The Hotel Barcelona takes its Covid protocols very seriously. The staff throughout the hotel were always wearing their masks properly. There were hand sanitizers around every corner of the hotel and we felt very safe throughout. The doors to the hotel rooms were closed with a sticker to mark that the room had been completely sanitized on your arrival too.
The cancellation that the hotel has in place is pretty robust. When we booked through their website we had the ability to cancel our reservation up until one day before our booking and we wouldn’t have to pay anything. This was really handy especially with how quickly plans change in today’s world.
Traveling during Covid can be a daunting task and while we at InspoVacay urge you to follow your countries and Spain’s travel guidance we are also here to arm you with the information needed to make sure you are maximizing the resorts Covid protocols and protections
Rooms
We were staying in an executive king room overlooking the crossroads at the front of the hotel. The room itself was very tastefully decorated in a kind of modern boho-chic vibe. There was a lovely massive king-size bed, a desk, a small seating area, and a really well-sized bathroom. The room was very spacious and there were three floor-to-ceiling windows that illuminated the room with light.
Main Area 
Bathroom
All rooms come with a safe, mini-fridge, a great size TV with a number of local and English-speaking channels. The bathrooms are private and come with complimentary shower gels, shampoos, and conditioners.
There are a number of other room options available at this hotel, but overall the room offering is fairly refined, which we actually liked. There were effectively 4 rooms types on offer including the Executive king, which we covered above.
Accessible Room
It’s great that they have this room type on offer. This room is designed especially so you can move around easily and without any obstacles. Bathroom, furniture, and heights adapted to the needs of the guests. This is roughly the same size as the Executive king room.
Triple Room
This is a great option if there are three guests wanting to stay in a room. This is basically an executive room with an additional bed. The bed is a rollout bed, so probably best suited to a family with a young child. The positive thing about the Hotel Barcelona is that they charge per room as opposed to per person.
Interior Family Room
Perfect for a family of four. These rooms have a nice king-size bed and a sofa area that doubles as a pullout bed. They do offer adjoining rooms for these room types, so if your family is bigger than 4 you can always get an adjoining room.
Price
Overall this hotel is pretty competitively priced for the offering they have. When we were deciding on a hotel to book in Barcelona our prerequisites were that it was a 4-star hotel below €120 a night for the room, that there were solid reviews on Tripadvisor and Google reviews and the hotel was located in a central location. Hotel Barcelona 1882 was the strongest offering.
The other hotel that was in contention was the Hotel Colonial Barcelona. What swayed us towards booking the Hotel Barcelona was the ratings. Although Hotel Barcelona doesn’t have a huge volume of ratings (due to it only being open a few years), the ratings were consistently high.
For our three nights accommodation in October, we paid a grand total of €346. So, a good bit less than our €120 a night requirement. One thing to call out is that we didn’t have breakfast included in our package. It would have cost us another €80 to have it included. You can obviously add on breakfast any day that you want at a cost of €14 ahead.
Food + Restaurant Options
The options in the hotel are a little bit limited and this was one part of the overall experience that we would have liked to see a better showing. The breakfast offering is great and we had no issues with that, but when it came to lunch and dinner the options weren’t great.
For Lunch and snacks, there is the El Bosc Terrace bar which is the bar in the basement. They have a nice mix of dishes on offer. It’s a mix of salads, burgers, wings, and pasta dishes and is a great spot to grab a quick bite.
For dinner, the main bar Bobo Bar serves up pretty much the exact same menu as El Bosc does during the day. With so many bars serving Tapas around every street corner. You would be remiss not eating out nightly, so the lack of variety at the hotel for lunch and dinner was an issue for us. There is a room service menu that mirrors the other food menus throughout the hotel.
Highlights from our food and drinking expeditions
There were two standout spots that we experienced on our trip. Firstly, if you are looking for a quaint place to grab a cocktail that oozes character and class then you have to visit Caribbean Club. Located quite close to Las Ramblas, down one of Barcelona’s sidestreets in a quaint little bar which is the perfect spot to pull up a barstool and sink some top-class cocktails. We could have spent all night here but had dinner reservations that night, so only had one. This is a must-visit.
The other place we had to call out was one of the best culinary experiences we had anywhere. Bardeni el meatbar is the restaurant in question and this unassuming spot serves up some Michelin star quality dishes. As you guess from the name of the restaurant, they focus on Meat-based dishes.
A few minutes walk from the Sagrada Familia, this restaurant does two sittings a day – Lunch and dinner. You will need to make a booking for this spot, so book early as it is well worth a visit. They rotate their menu, but our favorite dishes were the oxtail cannelloni and the steak tartare. If you like meat cooked to perfection, this is the spot for you.
Bars and Drinks Offering
There are three bars in this hotel and they open at varying times. There is a bar in the main lobby (Bobo Bar), but this bar is only open from around 4 pm onwards. You can get light snacks here and it’s a lovely bar. One of the nice things that we got when we arrived was two vouchers for drinks at the bar, which we used at the lobby bar.
There is another bar in the basement (El Bosc Terrace bar) that serves lunch and is where the breakfast is each morning. There is also a lovely courtyard right off this bar. The third bar, El Cel, is only open in the summer and spring and some of the autumn months and is the bar on the rooftop. This is such a nice place to grab drinks and there’s such a lovely vibe up there.
Conclusion
The Hotel Barcelona 1882 is a great option for anyone looking to stay in a decently priced 4-star that delivers a top-class experience in a very convenient location. We found it really difficult to find things to complain about here as our stay really went off without a hitch.
This is definitely a hotel we would recommend to anyone wanting the perfect place to set up base in Barcelona for a few days of sightseeing.
FAQ’s
Q. Does the Hotel Barcelona offer a shuttle service from the Airport
A. The hotel itself does not offer a shuttle service, but there are a number of options for getting to and from the airport. There is a shuttle bus that has a stop at the Sagrada Familia, which is just a few minutes walk away. A taxi from the airport should only cost around €30.
Q. Is parking available at the resort
A. Yes, parking is available for guests, but it does come at an additional cost. It costs €24 a day to use the car park, which is a little steep from our perspective.
Q. Is Wi-Fi included
A. Yes, Wi-Fi is available to you in your suite as well as throughout the hotel. We found that the speed was very good and could easily stream Netflix and take video calls.
Q. What local attractions are there?
A. Barcelona has so much on offer and it is one of our favorite cities to visit in Europe. Our highlights were definitely sampling some of the finest local tapas as well as taking in the impressive Sagrada Familia, which is a short walk away from the hotel.
